Organization

ALMA is a partnership of ESO (representing its member states), NSF (USA) and NINS (Japan), together with NRC (Canada), MOST and ASIAA (Taiwan), and KASI (Republic of Korea), in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. The Joint ALMA Observatory is operated by ESO, AUI/NRAO and NAOJ.

ALMA interface

The interface between ALMA and the astronomy community is provided by the three partners through the ALMA Regional Centers (ARCs). These are located at NAOJ in Mitaka, Japan, for the East Asian partner, at ESO in Garching, Germany, for the European partner, and at NRAO in Charlottesville, USA, for the North American partner. Links to ARC Guides, describing the User services provided, are given below.

Governance

The governing and policy-making body for the project is the ALMA Board, consisting of members representing the three partner regions and Chile. The ALMA Board is advised by an international ALMA Science Advisory Committee (ASAC). The ASAC is in turn advised by regional committees: the ALMA North American Scientific Advisory Committee (ANASAC), the ALMA East Asian Scientific Advisory Committee (EASAC), and the ALMA European Scientific Advisory Committee (ESAC).

Funding

ALMA is funded in Europe by ESO, in North America by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the Taiwan Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), and in East Asia by the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI).